Say 'Aummmmm'

This post was inspired by a chat conversation and a frend's blog post. We'd a discussion abt yoga, its merits and demerits (well it does hav plenty as u'll kno after u read thru!) and my mind wandered to my first real experience of hard-core yoga!

It all started in my 11th std with granny's insistence tht i shud accompany her to the local park for a breath of fresh air bcos i was becoming 'very bookish and pale'. So my stint with yoga started the next evening...an attempt to get the 'glow' back to my skin!

Now don't get me wrong bcos i aint making fun of the art but i always kinda imagined yoga as done by skinny sadhus who can float in the air or sleep on a bed of nails. Here was a rather plump sadhu who didn't look like he could defy gravity and raise even a millimeter from the ground for even a nanosec! Anyways the saving grace that fit him to my typical sadhu image was his long beard that looked like it could do with some washing. Not to worry Surf Excel hai na!

Anyways to go ahead with my yoga classes, my peers were mostly middle aged or old ladies. We started with some breathing exercises that were fine by me and i actually started feeling refreshed. Then came the part about lying flat on ur tummy and wriggling like a fish. Problem 1 : the lady behind me couldn't or wouldn't move anywhere. I think it was the latter bcos there was plenty of place behind her! So I ended up wriggling like a fish with its tail tied up since i cudnt move my legs!

Next, Problem 2 started with wat was called Parvat-asan. We wer told to stand on one leg with our hands joined in a namaste high above our heads. As soon as sadhu baba announced this, the aunty in front of me got up with surprising speed (considering her age and build!) and pushed every1 away to get to a particular place near a tree. She (aunty no. 1) and another aunty (aunty no. 2) stared daggers at each other till Aunty no. 1 won the staring race and got the spot she wanted.

I realised the significance of this whole exercise when she could support herself with the tree and i'd to play hopscotch where i stood! Finally 21 years of experience of being a bipod won out and my asan ended with me bumping into the lady next to me & with both of us collapsing. Did i mention tht the lady collapsed on me and i'd to squeak my way out frm under her!!

Still fine...then starts Problem 3 when I'm told to sit up and stare with concentration at a red eye-like light. As soon as i start tht, i get a tickling feeling. It becomes more and more unbearable till I burst out in one of those fits of giggles that threaten to be never-ending! The fit is fueled even more by all tht pent-up laughter tht i've bottled up since the start of the session and by nw i'm red in the face by trying to control it! So i let go all at once and start laughing like i've never laughed b4!!!

That was enuf for sadhu baba and he launched into a tirade of hw i don't have my chakras in the right place and hw they have bcome all dusty (or sumthing like tht which i dont remember bcos i was too busy giggling!). All in all the evening ended with me being thrown out of the class and banned from coming bak ever! Also thrown in was a lecture from granny abt hw i dont appreciate ancient heritage. Kuch bhi bolo...the laugh sure refreshed me a lot!!

That totally ended my encounter with yoga (or so i thought!) and I decided to stick to gym and aerobics to get my 'chakras' and 'glow' right! Until now...nw tht my frend has inspired me again for this mysterious yet relaxing form of exercise, I'm up and game for another wriggle on my tummy (or maybe another giggle frm my tummy)!!